Customer Reviews

An Enemy Reborn (Realms of Chaos: The Second Book)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book is definitely not as good as A Hero Born. It's entertaining, but the sense of flow and characterisation that made the first book so good are lacking in this sequel. But that can't totally be blamed on Michael Stackpole. The thing to remember here is that most of this story was written by William Wu and not M.Stackpole. The story concept and characters are Wu's. Stackpole only made modifications to the story so that it could get published, so technically it's not really a Stackpole original piece. But nonetheless, it's still worth a read.

An Enemy Reborn is not nearly as bad as every one else says it is. I will admit that it has an abrupt ending, and a total lack of any sort of anti-climax. Aside from that it added much more depth to the magic and combat that was started in A Hero Born. If you liked A Hero Born and enjoy reading Michael Stackpole books then I think that you should at least give this one a chance. I almost didn't read it because of all of the negative reviews, and think that i would have really missed out if I had listened to them.

Although, the concept and the idea of the book are very intriguing; the storyline has a lot of gaps which makes the details somewhat confusing. " ! warning a spoiler a head ! " A question to Mr Stackpole. If Xoayya has a vision where she's is getting married and Len is at this wedding. How is Len going to return to Realms of Chaos to attend that ceremony if he was send to Earth? Plus, why is the description on the back cover talks about Locke and how he "must become the very hero that he seeks" when Locke only enters the storyline ten pages before the end of the book ?

According to the afterword, Stackpole took some other writer's (William Wu) book and pasted his characters into it. And boy, does it show. He generated some inane story about a shoe salesman coming from the 20th century to save the world. His silly attempt to bring his universe together with the modern universe manages to ruin what was a likeably story until that point.

Stackpole also more or less ignored the main character of the previous story (Lachlan) and used a minor character (Tyrchan mainly) throughout this novel. How he managed to string together 120,000 words of this mess and how any editor worth anything ever published this, I'll never know. My recommendation: if you really like the story, and he should ever publish another novel in this universe (hopefully with a lot more sense this time) just read a summary of this novel on a web page or at most check it out from a library. This novel only got 1 star because that was as low as the counter could go -- it deserves 0 stars and an apologetic refund.

I thought the first book in the series provided us readers with an interesting world and excellent characters. While this book was set in the same place, I could not decide what the story was about. Was the story trying to be a silly version of Stephan Donaldson's not-hero, or was it suppose to be a Sprague de Campe-like light comedy about a dimension hopping hero that used a magical shoe scale? The wonderful world created in the first book was shredded apart by Mr. Stackpole's insistance on applying a friend's story to his own. It doesn't fit, it doesn't work, and it was painful to read.

I really really like Stackpoles' books and would recommend any of them except for this one. It was so bad it made me angry. Spoiler!! There are evil sneakers!!! Read a Hero Born and leave it there.

I can look past the fact that Locke, the main character from A Hero Born (Realms of Chaos: The First Book) (Realms of Chaos: The First Book), is featured prominently on both the front cover art and the description on the back cover when in fact he only shows up at the end of the book. Sure it's disappointing, but as long as the story is good, that's all that matters.

I can also look past the fact that Michael Stackpole, whose novel Talion: Revenant I credit with awakening me to the world of fantasy fiction, is listed as the book's author when in fact it is his pal William Wu who is responsible for most of the story. Again, disappointing, but as long as the story is good, that's all that matters.

I can even look past the fact that one of the book's major characters comes from "our" world, even though this type of plot device almost never works well (Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry being the obvious exception). Besides, as long as the story is good, that's all that matters.

BUT THE STORY IS NOT GOOD!!!

Seriously, I'm supposed to accept this as the sequel to the very enjoyable A Hero Born? Everything about this story screams amateur hour. I'm tempted to launch into a tirade about every flaw I encountered in An Enemy Reborn, but it all comes back to the same thing: the story just isn't good. I hate writing such a negative review of a (sort of) Michael Stackpole novel. I consider him one of the better fantasy fiction authors out there, and he seems like a nice guy too. But this novel is beneath him. Here's hoping it remains out of print.

Having read the first book, A Hero Born, I happily purchased this book expecting the same creative and entertaining writing that has become Mr. Stackpole's trademark. To say I was disapointed is a profound understatement. Reading this book was almost physically painful. These harsh words being said I do hope that this storyline is not abandoned but that additional books may be written but more in keeping with the first novel. Despite the misfire of this effort I'm sure we can expect other fine works from this author in the future.

I loved the first book in the series but I could not even finish this one it was a great dissapointment how he modernized the story.BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series and anxiously bought this one expecting to like it just as much. The only reason I was able to sit down and get through it was because Stackpole is one of my favorite authors. I was quite surprised that he wrote this book. The first thing that told me that I would end up hating it was when a guy from our time was somehow swept into the Realm of Chaos time. Big mistake. I would like to see another book written in this setting, but nothing like this one.